OT Shoulder belt doesn't retract

Yes, not that I can see. And I think the belt is entirely out. It won't budge when I pull and it certainly is long enough. Long enough that it's like there's no belt at all.

It's going to be 95 today in Baltimore and 97, 95, 99, 93, 96 and 94 in the days to follow, though I could have started at 6AM when it's

1. But by 10 it's 87.

If this is the driver's belt...can you use the passenger-side belt for the time-being to make it legal?

Both front seat belts have to work (at least here in Texas) to be legal for inspection purposes.

...hence, "time-being"!

Legal is legal, I don't believe there is a "time-being" clause in the law. However, I got your point as far as being seen driving without being buckled up.

you do know that there is a little weight inside the retractor, that causes the belt to lock when the car accelerates or decelerates.

That weight may be stuck.

Open the retractor and take a look.

Sure, but he'll have a hard time reaching the pedals from that side.

Micky posted for all of us...

Go to the Toyota dealer and they can remove the trim and trigger the latch, most likely in the reception area-that's what they did for me. They ordered and replaced the mechanism. They may replace the parts for free as it's a safety item. Be aware that that there is a pre-tensioner in there and requires precaution if you are doing it yourself. Also bolts must be torqued to specs.

LOL!

In maryland they don't inspect the car until it's sold again, even if that takes 20 years! I think I could use the passenger-side belt if I sat on the passenger side.

OTOH, Pa. used to inspect cars twice a year, every year, but after decades they lowered it to once a year.

That's a very good idea.

I'm confused. If they were able to trigger the latch, why did htey have to replace the mechanism?

Were they going to do it for free if it only required releasing the latch?

Even buying the part through them is not a good idea. They tried to cheat me the only time I went there to get work done.

What a day. I had taken a pill so I can could manage to lie in an MRI (some claustrophobia) and the supermarket gave me twice the prescribed dosage. So I was groggy and I hit a curb. Later, after I replaced the right half-axle, the lower control arm, the ball joint, the rotor, and the brake pads, I needed the car aligned. They were advertising a "sale" that made them as cheap as Firestone.

They aligned the wheels all right, maybe, but they took the opportunity to evaluate my car, and they said I needed boots from both CV joints in front. Well one had only 12 miles on it, and the other I went over in detail and it was firm and without cracks. They wanted

They might have tried to collect some other bogus "repairs". My memory is vague.

Thank you. Is it enough to disconnect the connector after removing the trim? While the car is off. (Surely, maybe, the pre-tensioner can't fire when the car is off? )

Okay. I have the shop manual and I'll look for that part. (Sometimes torques are elsewhere.)

Okay.

But no one wants to give me odds that it can be fixed?? I'm thinking less than 10% but I don't want to order a new belt without checking. I want to know the odds so I can bet with my next-door neighbor.

The odds are ?².

That will get you your less than 10%.

So, the cheap creep that you are wouldn't take the parts/belt from the passenger front to use on the driver's side? How typical...

I found this elsewhere...just one possible outcome if you go to the dealer.

The discussion was about a jammed seat-belt in a Honda. Someone mentioned that Honda's seat-belts are warrantied for life. The OP called a Honda dealer and was told:

"If they take it apart and find it's something like a folded seat belt jamming the mechanism I pay the labor for taking it apart and putting it together. If they find the seat belt is defective I pay nothing."

There was no mention of how much the labor would be, but I would guess that it would the dealer minimum, like perhaps 1 hour.

Great. That's a number I can work with. I'm going to sucker my neighbor into betting a lot of money. He says I can do it, and I'll prove it to him that I can't.

Thanks. Helpful.

That used to be the biggest government sanctioned theft of motorists ever invented. Scams varied from shop to shop.

We had three cars in the family and I took each one to a particular shop. They all passed, even my convertible with fogged plastic window, but coincidentally, they all needed a headlight adjustment. That was a good shop to go to.

Some just checked lights since that was visible if the state was watching. Others would try to get work like ball joints, tie rod ends and the like, needed or not.

Micky posted for all of us...

Because it's under warranty and may happen again. It's called customer satisfaction.

Yes

I was cautioning you. It may be required to replace the mechanism. I don't have the manual. You do.

Good idea.